The big difference between business process reengineering and continuous improvement programs like tqm or six sigma is that (a) reengineering is a tool for achieving one-time quantum improvement on the order of 30 to 50 percent or more, whereas tqm and six sigma programs aim at incremental improvement (striving for inch-by-inch gains again and again in a never-ending ) process reengineering create core competencies whereas tqm/six sigma are tools for making a core competence stronger and more efficient.(c) reengineering is a tool for creating an organization structure consisting of many process departments whereas tqm/six sigma concern defect-free production methods and delivering world- class customer service.(d) reengineering represents an effort to totally revamp a firm's value chain whereas tqm looks at incrementally improving the performance of two or three targeted value-chain activities and six sigma is used primarily for reducing manufacturing defects.(e) business process reengineering requires benchmarking and rapid adoption of best practices whereas tqm and six sigma deal with making big gains in the efficiency with which value chain activities are being performed.